Where is the center of car culture in Vancouver?
 

I recently moved to Vancouver after having lived in California and Victoria for the last few years. I never had trouble figuring out where I can connect with car enthusiasts. I'm talking online or otherwise. On Van Island Facebook is absolute king. Every group has their own pages and the more general pages are heavily populated. Is Revscene where it's at in Vancouver? I'm trying to figure out how I can get involved in the car community in this city, but it seems really small and somewhat secretive.

Where are car parts being sold and traded? And what are the regular meet-ups?

Is there something I'm missing or is there really not a central hub for automotive culture in Vancouver?

I love working on cars and I'm looking to get involved and meet other enthusiasts. If you are working on something and you need a hand wrenching, hit me up. Even if you only need someone to hold a light

It'll vary based on your preference. If you're into motorsports and looking to connect with other enthusiasts check out motorsportreg.com for the latest HPDE track days, AutoX. If you're into dragracing check out missionraceway.com schedule section.

If you're looking more for car culture meets then it'll be a combination of this site and facebook for the most part. There used to be big meets every Thursday Night at the Market Crossing car park (Marine Way Market). Not sure if these still happen as it seem to grow in attendance every spring/summer until people start littering and misbehaving which attracts unwanted attention. It's private property and the owners notify RCMP who start handing out VI's like skittles and block off the entrances to modified cars...basically shutting the whole thing down.

I'd say your best bets are Cars & Coffee at Porsche Langley (check facebook for dates) and look out for the annual Revscene Summer meet which is well organized and brings together all the difference facets of enthusiasts.

Really what I'm really looking for is the people that like to modify their cars. There is so much to learn and I've always wanted to surround myself with people that are also passionate about custom cars whether it's for style, performance or anything else. I'm excited by everything from race cars to 4x4s, really anything built for a purpose.

The farther away you get from Vancouver the more you will find people who modify cars.

Go out into the valley and I'm guessing the culture is still strong. Vancouver is full of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and Ferraris for "car enthusiasts". Trouble is no one has space to work on their vehicles in the city.

I love it when CCA-Dave or hud 91gt post updates to their cars. Its always fun seeing how they're progressing on their builds. Not many people really work hands one with their cars like those guys do.. One day ill get to meet them.. :)

I get that. Real estate is crazy here. I happened to get a rental with a garage, so I'm using it as much as possible.

Dragon-88 says you have a project. If you ever need a hand or wanted some company while wrenching, I'm happy to help.

I wondered while I was preparing to move here if there would ever be interest in getting a few people together to rent out a shop space. I've seen spaces around 1000sqft for around $1k/mo that would be a great shop space for a few people to chip in and work on cars together.

I would be in for the right space. Trouble is the price to bring it to a reasonable rate would most likely kill the possibility of everyone have a place to store their vehicle.


Dragon, if you met me you may be severely dissapointed. I'm just a hack. But try and fivure things out as they come. HA

...I should really get back into the garage tonight. I've been gone since early May, and the closest I've gotten to the car is installing a garage door opener yesterday. Exciting stuff :P

Sorry you missed the train. It was booming in the 90s and 2000s. You might still find some ppl build, but kids now a days rather buy then build. As for parts revscene and Craigslist is your best bet, but even then there isn't much parts to trade or sell.

Such a shame.

I guess I was really wrong about Vancouver. I thought for sure it would be similar to the Island as far as car guys messing with their stuff. It's a huge thing over there. I know Van is tough because of the cost, and obviously the roads in the city are terrible, but I didn't expect it to be this barren.

Vancouver, and by extension the Greater Vancouver Area, has some incredible car culture. Hidden all over are warehouses and garages with amazing classic car collections. Every year Vancouver area cars are found at Pebble Beach, in the "feature cars" section of the major auction tents or simply out enjoying events.

We have one of the top restoration shops in the world, and quite a few more that are almost equally as good (just not tested with the awards to back it up). Lots of shops doing incredible work, and hosting impromptu beers & car talk on a Friday at the end of the work day. I can think of four or five home garages just in North Van where race cars, classic cars or other impressive builds are being done by hobbyists. There's Rocket Rally up in Squamish, home of the Subaru Canada Rally Team...and within the lower mainland you'll find the former Canadian National champion for rallying, the current 2wd leader, and 3 or 4 guys who are in the top 5 or 6 nationally this year. Whistler is home to two British Rally champions, one of whom also won the Chinese(?) championship and one other one in Europe. Martin flies off to Sweden in the winters to teach at a winter driving school with other European and WRC rally guys.

I haven't even begun to list out the Historic Racing group, the Porsche Driving group, the HDPE guys, the tonnes of driving coaches we've got and all the machinists, powder coaters, fabricators and other stuff we're quite lucky to have.

The problem, though, is we no longer have a "spot" we all meet at. For a couple of years the Thursday Night unofficial RevScene meets were amazing for this. You'd have the young first-time-tuner kids with exhaust 'mods' parked next to a crowd of custom Honda Ruckus bikes, and just down the way some of the most impressive sema-worthy tuner builds I've ever seen. American muscle and drag cars, classic cars, exotic cars...pretty much everything showed up. Sadly, so did the idiots with their motor revving and burnouts...so the Thursday meets are no more.

Best I can suggest is hit up the North Vancouver Carbs and Coffee, the Langley Porsche Cars and Coffee and the RevScene official meets. Start to meet people, and the opportunity to get involved in Vancouver's car culture will follow.

-Dave

Hope Restored! That's great to hear, thanks for the dose of reality Dave. I'll do just that. Without getting into a long story about my past, I was really running on the assumption that car culture in Canada was strongest in the GVA. That's how I ended up here so I'm really excited to get involved.

From what I've been told, the Vintage racers are starting to get a bit thin in numbers. However, brand-specific groups (Porsches, Corvettes, Miatas, etc.), various HPDE groups, and multiple club racing organizations are all very active and/or growing in numbers. That may not necessarily be what the OP is looking for, but the numbers and the people are certainly there.

Lol, really? I'm totally curious how you came to that assumption.

I would have picked Toronto as "the strongest". They have a bigger population, three genuinely good road course tracks within 2.5hours drive that AREN'T private clubs, a huge drag racing scene and the list goes on and on. Mind you, Toronto people don't tend to "drive" their enthusiast cars anymore, as traffic and the highways are brutal...plus there is that whole massive winter weather thing.

This is true, and it will be a few years before Vintage Racing starts to pick up again. I suspect they're starting to look at the regulations to see if things can't be loosened a little to allow "new blood" without harming the spirit and intention of the racing...but then, I've been hearing that for a few years now.

Hahaha, I even forgot to list my own Classic Car Adventure events when listing Vancouver's car culture. Good marketing Dave, goooooood marketing :P

Now, keeping in mind that my interests are certainly more Classic Car related my list of "don't miss" car events in Vancouver are generally more classic car oriented...but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate every aspect of the car industry. I'd never build a hydraulic bouncing car on daytons, but I would still walk across a parking lot to check one out. Events off the top of my head:

Spring:
RevScene Spring Meet
Classic Car Adventures (CCA) - Hagerty Spring Thaw (April)
All British Field Meet - (May)

Summer:
Italian & French Car Show North Van (name escapes me, June?)
German Car Festival North Vancouver (June)
Pacific Northwest Historics - Vintage racing June / July Mission & Seattle
Collector Car Appreciation Day - (July) hosted by RX Autoworks & CCA
Great Canadian Volkswagen Show (August)
All Japanese Classics - August, North Van

Fall:
Dubberz Whistler Cruise
Hagerty Fall Classic - CCA (September)
Langley GoodTimes Cruise In - Sept
Thanksgiving Run - CCA (October, Thanksgiving Monday)

Ongoing:
Carbs and Coffee North Vancouver
Langley Porsche Cars and Coffee
Weissach Cars and Coffee
Friday Night Street Legal Drags - Mission Dragway

*Centre

Weather was the biggest factor in my thinking. I remember when I lived in Calgary I wouldn't even consider picking up a wrench for more than half of the year. It was horribly cold unless you had a heated garage and you probably wouldn't want to drive your project or fun car during that half of the year anyway. I figured the same is true of Ontario. Too much rust and not good weather for most of the year.

I haven't personally driven on a real race track, closest I've been is AutoX. It's something I'm really interested in doing, but I assume there are a lot of guys out there like myself that love cars and working on them but haven't ever been on a track. That makes me think the community of car guys doesn't have to be in a place with race tracks nearby, but you do have a point.


Thanks for the list too, I'll have to mark them down.

If you have nothing better to do this Sunday morning (4 June), Porsche Langley is hosting C&C.

List above is missing Revscene Summer meet.

Thursday meets have moved to Princess Auto in Coquitlam, significantly smaller but still a good time nonetheless

Lol, probably because I'm never in town for it...

Yea like Herman said specifically, but many others have said, c&c at Porsche Langley this coming Sunday, (it's always first Sunday of every month usually), great place to get out and meet people.

What do you drive? So that we can all recognize what you are showing up in, welcome to revscene, great group of people, just don't mention S2K or ITR in a bad way or ur be banned

All Japanese Classic and Mercedes Club show are both on the 27th of August in North Van. Right beside each other too, should be a good day.

Excellent, I'll try to get out there!

I drive an S14 240sx, if you're interested here is my build thread (which needs updating). I won't pretend it's a nice looking car, but it's been a long time project that I've really enjoyed learning on. I just made the plunge to a standalone ECU and I'm having a hell of a time tuning it. With that said, I'm not sure I will be driving it to C&C unless I can improve the tune by then.

Every Wednesday evening there is a small gathering of Hot Rods in Ladner in the Safeway parking lot. It's real old school, no tuner cars or anything like that.
There is also a big car show every year in downtown Ladner. This year it's August 20th
I loved the Market Crossing meets. Such a wide variety of cars and people that liked to talk about them. Turned into a gong show.